Quickies
by vampireisthenewblack
Summary: Three under 500 word ficlets first posted in the Quickie Contest. A couple of old things I scavenged from my hard drive and one I wrote especially for the contest.
1. Chapter 1

Three under 500 word ficlets first posted in the Quickie Contest. No theme, well, perhaps two are a little similar. A couple of old things I scavenged from my hard drive and one I wrote especially for the contest. Posting just for fun. They're nothing special. One a day perhaps? Hmm. Here's the first.

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><p><strong>Surrender, or How Twilight Should Have Ended<strong> by **vampireisthenewblack**

**Summary:** The monster in my head smiled in anticipation. Vamp/AU.

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><p>The monster in my head smiled in anticipation.<p>

Three and a half seconds later, Isabella Swan sat down. The last few students hit the ground and I appeared beside her in the aisle, just as she began to realise that everyone in the room but us had fallen to the floor. I couldn't ascertain from the expression on her face whether she had any real comprehension of what had happened or was about to happen to her.

She simply stared up at me with a worried and confused expression on her face. With the door locked and potential witnesses all dead, I inhaled as I slipped my hand around her neck and drew her up from her seat. Her scent washed over me again and my throat burned, but this time I embraced it. Her eyes darted from the children on the floor to my face, and I could see the fear in them as realisation dawned.

For her, barely an instant had passed between my appearance beside her and her death. No time to scream. Barely enough time to register fear.

From my perspective, every moment was drawn out. While the speed with which I enacted every movement may have appeared violent, my touch was gentle, light. I wanted to savour this, the sweetest blood of all.

Her neck bent toward me as I placed my open lips on her throat. I pushed my teeth through her skin, and as her hot blood hit my tongue, my senses exploded into fire. I couldn't have stopped, even if I'd wanted to.

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><p><strong>AN:** This little thing might have been my very first twific ever, something I scrawled out after reading Midnight Sun perhaps. I got some hilarious comments on it in the contest. I think it might have been the title ;) I don't hate Twilight, but come on, Edward and his perfect control? Wouldn't it be more fun if he wasn't so perfect all the time? And I must admit, I've killed Bella many more times since I wrote this tiny snippet. Get over it. It's fanfiction. It's kinda the point :D


	2. Chapter 2

**Release** by **vampireisthenewblack**

**Summary:** A grave mistake led me to this moment. I asked for this, begged for it, but it doesn't prevent me from begging them to stop. Vamp/AU.

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><p>A grave mistake led me to this moment. A misguided self-sacrifice ended in disaster. I'm done with self-sacrifice. I cannot live with my loss.<p>

Closing my eyes, I breathe a silent apology to those who remain behind, and step into the noonday sun.

It warms my skin.

I am caught from behind and pulled into the shadows.

"Felix. Demetri." Their thoughts show me I will get my wish.

I wrap the cloak firmly around me as I am led through the tunnels. I asked for this, forced their hand, and I don't need to be dragged away as others have been.

I'm taken into a cavernous, stone-lined chamber, where the remnants of fire—a blackened circle of charcoal and ash—is the only decoration.

Felix turns to me and grins, then he and his companion build the fire that will ensure my oblivion.

The flames are mesmerising, licking higher and higher, burning hot. A vampire stands on either side of me. I close my eyes as I bring one image into my mind. Soft brown eyes, full of acceptance. I smile and whisper, "I'm ready."

They each take an arm and wrench.

That sound—the ripping of stony flesh—hurts my ears, but it is drowned out by my screams of agony as the excruciating pain envelops me.

I asked for this, begged for it, but it doesn't prevent me from begging them to stop as I am torn apart, crushed into pieces.

I wait for the pain to cease, but it doesn't. Another grating tear and my screams are silenced forever.

I twist and convulse, caught in paroxysms of agony and panic and fear. The noise continues, crunching now; I can still hear, can still see the gloating vampire forms taking pleasure in my pain, the growing glow of the fire staining the walls red.

All the tiny parts of me, still writhing, twisting, are propelled into the flames and I burn.

The fire is unendurable, like nothing I've felt before, even the pain of my transformation which I remember so well. It seems to go on longer, though I know it is impossible. I pray that awareness will leave me soon and give me the oblivion I crave. I want to scream, but I can't. Nothing is intact enough now to form sound, but I am aware of parts of myself that writhe with the pain, parts of me that are separate from each other, scattered within the fire.

I see only flames; even my eyes burn with searing red pain as the fire licks at them, then consumes them entirely.

One by one, each part of me turns to ash. I twist, break apart, and fall away into the dust I should have been long ago.

Less and less I become, smaller and smaller, until all of the killing agony is concentrated in one tiny convulsing spark, and my entire broken being crumbles away into release.

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><p><strong>AN:** This one actually got some nice reviews in the contest. It's another I wrote a very long time ago and never did anything with. I like it a lot though. Oh, I should have said in the first one I posted, but venis-envy and mynameisserendipity helped heaps with prereading, and as always, Dellaterra is just the most wonderful beta. I always do a double-take when I get my stuff back from her, with the margin crammed full of comments, but that's just the way I like it. Every tiny little thing she points out makes my stuff so much better. Thanks :D


	3. Chapter 3

**Perhaps With Time** by **vampireisthenewblack**

**Summary:** Aro indulges those who serve him well, and it is a long time since I have asked anything of him. I will ask him for Edward Cullen. Vamp/AU.

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><p>Aro's library is famous. Not only is it filled with ancient and contemporary texts of all descriptions, it also houses our records.<p>

Genealogies, histories, details of any talents a vampire may possess. Each of us has a file. There are hundreds more about vampires outside of the Guard, outside of Volterra. Vampires the world over have been the subject of Aro's curiosity for centuries.

Carlisle is here. Much of it he wrote himself, and it contains such details of his human life as he could recall, as well as his first decades after the change.

Within his file are those of the four vampires he created, as well as a folder for two others who joined his large coven.

On occasion, these files contain images, depictions. Of Carlisle, there is a reference to a portrait that hangs within the library itself, and it is a beautiful thing.

As Carlisle is beautiful himself.

Sometimes they contain photographs.

From the file marked 'Edward', I withdraw three prints. One is a family photograph, a human family. Mother, father, and a boy of about the age I must have been when I was changed. Even then, even while human, even with the primitive photograph, he was beautiful.

It is easy to see why Carlisle chose him.

There is a more recent photograph of the human Edward. More mature, obviously taken not long before the sickness that would have killed him.

The final photograph is, unlike the others, in pure and vivid living colour. Unlike the others, this photograph is of a vampire.

A smiling vampire with golden eyes. A vampire frozen at the very peak of perfect youth and beauty.

He is breathtaking.

The attached correspondence shows that the picture was taken almost a decade ago.

This Edward is so different from the vampire who stood in Aro's presence only an hour before.

He will force Aro's hand. He will break the laws and he will be punished for it.

But Aro indulges those who serve him well, and it is a long time since I have asked anything of him.

I will ask him for Edward Cullen.

He has lost his human mate, and he is broken and desperate. Perhaps with time I can bring him back to the smiling beauty I see in the photograph.

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><p><strong>AN:** This one created some confusion in the contest! The biggest thing commented on was who is the mystery narrator? Of course I just assume that everyone knows exactly what's in my head, but I guess not! Now I'm going to do that cliché review h00r thing, and ask if you figured it out. Go on. Tell me. Am I as predictable as I think I am?


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